


Dealing With Changes

by MiladyDragon



Series: Dragon-Verse Series One [1]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragon-Verse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-05
Updated: 2012-03-05
Packaged: 2017-11-01 04:16:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/351826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiladyDragon/pseuds/MiladyDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ianto and Jack discuss the ramifications of Gwen Cooper's hiring, and Ianto realizes his Tarot reading is starting to come true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dealing With Changes

**Author's Note:**

> This is a coda for the Dragon-Verse version of the Series One episode "Everything Changes". Instead of re-writing this episode, a coda seemed the best way to go.

**_5 September 2007_ **

****

“So, you hired her then.”

Jack Harkness didn’t turn; but then, he had to have been expecting Ianto to find him.  The wind whipped his coat around his legs, and Ianto thought that Jack looked more at home of roofs than anywhere else. 

Ianto himself loved the high places as well.  The roof of the Millennium Center was one of his favorite spots to come and think.  He strode across the slightly curved surface as if he was walking across the Plass itself, the height and the wind not bothering him at all.  But then, he was used to even loftier perches, that just came along with being a dragon.

“I did,” Jack answered, with his eyes still on the Cardiff skyline.

“Owen and Tosh aren’t very happy about it,” Ianto said, coming to stand next to the immortal.  “Especially Owen.  He thinks it’s a slap in Suzie’s face, to replace her so quickly.”

Jack shrugged.  “He’ll get over it.  It’s not like he and Suzie were particularly close.”

“Then I suppose this means you weren’t aware that they’d been shagging for months?”  That news surprised Ianto.  He’d have thought Jack would have been the first to put it together.

“Are you sure?”  Jack’s voice sounded slightly strangled.

“After catching them at it in the Autopsy Bay…yep, pretty sure.”

Ianto heard a soft curse, and he didn’t respond, certain that Jack hadn’t meant for him to hear it.   “And why does Tosh not agree with my hiring Gwen, then?”

The dragon followed Jack’s eyes out over the city.  “Because she thinks it’s a slap in _my_ face.”  The first thing Tosh had done was corner him about it, to make certain he was all right.  He couldn’t lie to her, and he’d admitted that he didn’t agree with it either, but he didn’t go into detail.

The captain was silent.  “Why does she think that?” he finally asked.

It was Ianto’s turn to be silent.  He didn’t really want to give the reasons that Toshiko had, simply because he was positive that she was seeing something in his and Jack’s on again-off again whatever it was that simply wasn’t there.

“What do you think PC Cooper can bring to Torchwood, then?  She doesn’t know anything that Suzie did, and from checking her files I can’t see any particular skill she might have that would complement the team.”




“I…saw something in her,” Jack admitted.  “I think she can bring something to the team that we lack.”

Ianto looked at him curiously.  There was nothing that he’d seen in the woman herself that he’d thought would lend itself to their dynamic.  She didn’t have any particular skill set that would fit in with the others; she wasn’t even a trained investigator or profiler.  “What would that be?”

“Humanity.”

Ianto stiffened.  He felt incredibly insulted, to be told that he needed to be more ‘human’.  “And have you forgotten that one member of this team isn’t, in fact, human?”  He tried not to let it show in his voice, but some of his feeling came through.

“I just think we need someone to remind us what we’re fighting for.”  Jack’s voice had gone harsh.

“I don’t need a reminder, Jack,” Ianto snapped.  “I know very well what – and _who_ – I’m fighting for.”  His loyalty had always been with Jack, even when the immortal acted like the dragon was more of a hindrance than a help.  Ianto had known Jack Harkness for nearly seven years, and the man’s indifference still hurt.  How many times had he wished he’d never left Ddraig Llyn?  But it had seemed like an adventure, and that he’d had Jack to share it with.  Plus, Ianto had always believed in destiny, and he was convinced that it was that destiny that had brought Jack to him all those years ago. 

But the blush had left the rose not long after he’d gotten that Tarot reading.

He’d never mentioned it to Jack.  There didn’t seem to be a need.  They’d built Torchwood up into something to be proud of, and Ianto had enjoyed it.   However, the ephemerals he’d had to deal with had quickly soured him on the rest of humanity.  Certainly, there were some he’d liked; he’d met Estelle Cole one day while out with Jack, and he’d loved her immediately.  He could see what had drawn Jack to her back when she’d been young, the life glowing from within.  He’d often gone back to her home without Jack, or showed up at one of her seminars.  He’d been the first since Jack that he’d trusted with his secret, even if Jack couldn’t do the same.  Not that it mattered…Estelle was very much aware that the man who called himself her lover’s son was, in fact, the lover she’d lost as a young woman.  Jack wasn’t nearly as sneaky as he thought.

And then there’d been Canary Wharf…and Ianto had seen first-hand what humanity’s hubris had nearly wrought. 

His companion actually flinched at Ianto’s comment, and a perverse part of the dragon’s mind thought it was good.  It wasn’t a secret how Ianto felt about humanity, but then he had little reason to trust it. 

“She doesn’t need to be told about me,” the dragon ordered.  “I don’t trust her.”

“You haven’t really talked to her much,” Jack protested.  “How can you judge on first meetings?”

She or her family has been tainted by something, something inimical to life.”




Jack didn’t say anything, simply kept staring out over Cardiff.  A part of Ianto was glad that Jack wasn’t looking at him; there was no telling what his face was giving away.  He was so used to his masks, but this subject bothered him. 

He was aware that Jack wasn’t quite sure about Ianto’s senses.  Yes, the dragon could tell when the Rift was active, and would often know minutes before the alert would sound.  He could also tell where Jack was anywhere in the Hub, and had actually made a bit of cash off Owen over it.  But they disagreed on just what those senses were, and as such Jack really didn’t trust them.

So, it was a bit of a shock when he asked, “Can you tell what it is?”

Ianto shook his head.  “No.  Only that it is generations old.  It’s written so deeply into her soul that I doubt anything will get rid of it.”  He thought it might be connected to the Rift in some way, but if so it was tenuous at best.

“Then hiring her might be the best thing to do.  Then we can keep an eye on her.”  Jack almost sounded triumphant.

Which pissed Ianto off.  “Anyone else you’d be throwing them in the cells and having Owen perform any test he could come up with.”

The annoyance was practically rolling off Jack in waves.  “I still think she can bring something to the team.”

“And what is that, Jack?  What can Gwen Cooper offer that doesn’t have to do with this vaunted humanity you’re so enamored of?”

“I thought she’d make an excellent liaison between us and the Cardiff CID.”

“I see.  So, you think I’m not doing the job properly.”  It wasn’t a question.

“I didn’t say that – “

“And yet you didn’t introduce me as your Second when you were showing her around the Hub.”

Jack opened his mouth to deny it, but Ianto knew he couldn’t.  He’d introduced everyone, along with their specialty within Torchwood, but with Ianto he’d denigrated him to glorified janitor and sex object.  Yes, he was used to Jack flirting, but that hadn’t been the time for it.  Ianto had passed it off, returning with a complaint about harassment, but it was more to show a united front to the interloper than for any other reason. 

“So, not only are you replacing Suzie…you’re replacing me, in several different ways.”  Ianto had known it was just a matter of time, but that didn’t stop the hurt.

_He will break your heart four times._

The prophecy came back in a rush.  The card had been of a woman with dark hair, dressed as a cavalier.  _Gwen Cooper._

Jack’s jaw dropped.  “It’s not what you think!” he denied.

Ianto laughed harshly.  “I doubt very much that you know what I think.”  He didn’t know about the reading.  He didn’t know the dragon’s feelings. 

“You’re afraid Gwen’s going to take your place.”

“I doubt I could stop it happening even if I tried.”  It was destiny.  She was there, and her presence would break his heart. 

Ianto wanted to fight it.  Because, if he could fight this…so many thoughts rushed in on him, and he couldn’t straighten them out. 

“I’ll make sure she knows you’re my Second when she reports to work on Monday.”

Of course Jack would think he’d be concerned about his position in Torchwood.  No, if the captain wanted Gwen as his Second, Ianto would have stepped aside for her.  Ianto would have been insulted, but it was ultimately Jack’s decision. 

But then, he’d never truly been in Jack’s heart, so really he couldn’t be replaced there.  Replaced in the immortal’s bed maybe…but never his heart.

“She doesn’t know about me, Jack,” he reiterated. 

“She knows I can’t die.” Jack said it almost proudly.

Ianto spun on him.  “So you trust her, but not the two people who’ve worked for you for years?  Gods Jack…do you have any idea just how hypocritical that sounds?”  He didn’t let on that he’d seen the CCTV from Suzie’s attack, and that he knew that Jack hadn’t told Gwen voluntarily.  It was just like the man to try to twist events to prove a point.

“I’m just saying that I trusted her with that, so you can trust her with you being a dragon – “

“No, Jack.  I gave you my reasons for not trusting her.  Owen and Tosh already know my wishes, and agree with them.  You will respect my decision.”

Ianto let his own eyes take on their dragon aspect.  “You will respect my decision, Captain Harkness,” he growled.  “Just as you have your secrets, I have mine.”  The dragon didn’t want to argue over this, because then he’d end up being a hypocrite just as Jack was.  A part of him mourned the closeness they’d shared in the past, because that was apparently over.  “If I see that she can be trusted, I might consider telling her.  But until that time, she is to think I’m just another _ephemeral,_ like her.”  He put every bit of disdain he had into that word, ephemeral.        

Then he stepped away from his part-time lover.  “I’m leaving.  I’ll be back tomorrow.  I also gave Tosh and Owen the day off.  Don’t come looking for me, because I can’t deal with you right now.”

Despite it being full daylight, Ianto reached deep into himself to touch the source of his magic.  He could feel the transformation roaring through him like high tide, swirling in and around him, twisting his human form into its natural shape.  Bones shifted and realigned themselves, and his wings grew from his back, unfurling like leather to catch the sun’s rays.  It was a glorious pain, one that filled him with the utter _rightness_ of his existence. 

The dragon stretched muscles that had been too long in their ephemeral shape.  His eyes sought out Jack; he was staring as if he’d never seen the change before, when in fact he had.  “And you’re worried about Gwen knowing?” he demanded sharply. 

“There’s a difference in people seeing me in this form, and knowing who I actually am.  Goodbye, Jack.”  Ianto flexed his powerful wings, propelling himself from the rooftop and leaving Jack behind.

**********

It didn’t take Ianto long to reach his home.  He landed in the fenced-back back garden, transforming himself before heading inside. 

The house looked like a rambling Victorian, but the inside was very different.  Ianto had bought the place just after arriving in Cardiff, and had the interior completely redone.  The lower level was very much a human-like living area, with all those comforts that ephemerals needed:  furniture; entertainment center with television and pretty much every form of electronics imaginable; large collections of DVD’s, CD’s, and books in tall shelves.  There was even a guest room and bath.

It was the upper floors where the most changes had been made.

Ianto unlocked the back door, closing it then resetting the state-of-the-art alarm system he’d had installed months before. The interior was dark, the curtains drawn against the sunlight outside.

“It’s just me,” he called up, not wanting to frighten his guest.




A soft exhalation that sounded like his name answered the call.  Confident that all was well, Ianto busied himself in the kitchen, determined to put what had happened out of his mind for the time being. 

 


End file.
